Second Chances
by Zaxxon
Summary: Ranma/Bubblegum Crisis. Side story to "A Hell of a Life". Native Ranma and Nabiki is given a second chance...


Second Chances  
Part 1  
  
A Ranma 1/2 + Bubblegum Crisis Fanfic  
by  
Shaule Sachs  
  
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Version 0.2  
  
#include   
#include   
  
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Soun Tendo read the post card once again, "Hi. Bringing Ranma  
from China. Saotome."  
Wondering, he asked himself, "Ranma? Coming here?"  
Filled with emotions, he proclaimed to the Heavens, "Oh, how I've  
waited for this day!"  
Soun Tendo gathered his three daughters, explained that an old  
friend of his had a son named Ranma Saotome and that if one of his  
daughters married him, then the Tendo Family Legacy would be secured.  
"What?!?!? Don't we have a say in this?" an outraged Akane asked.  
"Akane's right," Kasumi stated calmly. "We've never even met  
Ranma."  
To which, Soun replied, "That's easily fixed. He's coming here  
today. You can meet him then."  
"Nani?" Nabiki exclaimed as her head exploded with pain. The pain  
receded as fast as it had come leaving her with the feeling that she  
swallowed an encyclopedia. A sense of deja vu settled over her.  
More to himself, Soun stated, "Recently, it seems, Ranma and my  
old friend, Genma Saotome, was been in China."  
"China?" Nabiki repeated woodenly as if she was reading from a  
script.  
"What's so great about China?" Akane wondered out loud.  
Kasumi got a worried look on her face and asked, "How old is he?  
Younger men bore me."  
Nabiki looked at Kasumi, then at Akane's long hair, then at her  
father, and seemed to recall something. A dim memory surfaced. Her  
sense of deja vu increased.  
Kasumi asked, "What kind of guy *is* this Ranma?  
Soun laughed and said, "No idea."  
Nabiki under her breathe said, "But... I do... I think."  
While examining her father face for a reaction, Nabiki repeated  
her father's statement, "No idea?"  
Soun honestly replied, "I've never met him."  
There was a commotion outside.  
"We have visitors," Kasumi remarked.  
Unsettled by the intensity of his daughters, Soun got up and  
said, "That must be they now!"  
//That will be Ranma, if I remember correctly,// Nabiki thought  
to herself.  
Soun came running back as a panda chased him. Nabiki was the only  
one who noticed the sign the panda was holding. It said, "Wait! I can  
explain!"  
Kasumi, in a scared voice, asked, "Daddy... Is this your friend?"  
Soun shook his head.  
Sarcastically Nabiki remarked to Kasumi, "A panda just decided to  
visit us? Happens all the time!"  
The panda turned away slightly and pulled a redhead in front of  
himself. The redhead was soaked to the skin and had a very obviously  
feminine figure.  
Upon seeing the redhead, Soun asked in a worried voice, "You...  
wouldn't be..."  
Nervously, the redhead replied to Soun, "Ranma... Ranma Saotome.  
Sorry about this..."  
It was at this point that Kasumi pointed out, "Ranma... is a  
*girl*, Daddy."  
To which Soun fainted.  
  
Akane and Kasumi tried to revive their father while Nabiki went  
into the kitchen get some hot water. She came back with it and some  
cups for tea.  
As Nabiki handed Ranma a cup of hot water, a look of  
recognition passed between them.  
"Thanks," Ranma said calmly as she poured the contents over her  
head.  
And wonders of wonders, she became a *he*.  
"If we could sit down, I can explain this," Ranma stated.  
Nabiki led the way to the dining room and sat down on Ranma's  
right. Akane, Kasumi, and Soun sat across from them.  
The panda had trouble getting through the doorway that lead to  
the dining room. Actually, the panda had gotten stuck, but wasn't  
going to admit it. Especially since none were paying the panda any  
attention.  
While the panda tried to escape the door jam, Ranma explained  
about Jusenkyo and its cursed springs.  
When Ranma finished his tale, a light came to Kasumi's face as  
she said, "Then the panda is..."  
"My baka father," Ranma stated as he threw a cup of hot water at  
the stuck panda, which turned into Genma Saotome, who had less trouble  
getting into the dining room finally.  
Once Genma was seated, Soun stated in a rare moment of  
understanding, "Cold water turns you, Ranma, into a girl, and hot  
water restores you... Your problem isn't so terrible after all."  
Soun then gestured at this daughters, "My daughter, Kasumi,  
nineteen, and Nabiki, seventeen, and Akane, sixteen.  
"Pick the one you want. She's your fiancee..."  
As Kasumi pushed Akane forward, she said, "Oh, he wants Akane!"  
At Kasumi's statement, Nabiki shot her older sister a hard, cold  
look.  
Kasumi was surprised to see the the anger in her sister's eyes,  
especially since it was directed at her. Nabiki's anger was such that  
Kasumi took an involuntary step away from her.  
"Nani?" Akane stated obvious to the interacting between her older  
sisters. "You must be joking! I hate *boys*!!!"  
Ignoring Nabiki for a moment, Kasumi happily stated to Akane, "So  
you're in luck! He's half-girl."  
"Me? Marry that... that... that pervert?!?!? Never!" Akane  
exclaimed.  
Ranma winced at being called a 'pervert', he hadn't done anything  
to deserve it. Nabiki was the only one who saw his pain though.  
Both Kasumi and Akane looked at their sister, who had remained  
silent since her return from the kitchen, with great surprise. They  
knew that of the three of them, she was the least traditional. An  
arranged marriage was at the top of her list of things wrong with the  
world. It was if Nabiki wasn't playing attention to them, like she  
was waiting for something.  
Nabiki sighed, soften her face, turned to her father, and said  
very formally, "Father. As *eldest*, Kasumi had the *first* choice....  
For better or worse, she's *made* that *choice*. Therefore, if it is  
truly important... *I'll* marry *Ranma*."  
In response, Soun could only blink. Things were not going the way  
he envisioned it. He had thought that his daughters would be overjoyed  
at not having to secure their own marriage. But instead, they were  
outraged. He had hoped that Akane, his heir for his School, would  
willing accept this pledge as a matter of family honor, but she had  
been the most against it. Worse, he realized that Nabiki was correct.  
If anything, Kasumi, as eldest daughter, should be the one chosen...  
Nabiki sashayed over to Ranma, and said, "So your *my*  
fiancee..."  
In the background, they all over-heard the television say,  
"Greetings, I'm Kuroishi Ichiro... and this is the Eleven O'Clock  
news."  
"Since it's so late," Kasumi announced. "The Saotomes should stay  
overnight..."  
Kasumi thought a moment, stood up, and happily said as she walked  
out of the room, "I'll get the guest room ready!"  
"Tendo-san?" Genma asked in puzzled voice. During last month, his  
world had been turned upside-down. First, Jusenkyo and its curses, if that  
wasn't enough, then there was 'Mount Phoenix' and its 'bird-people,'  
what happened there... His mind refused to think about it. But mostly,  
it was the changes in Ranma since Jusenkyo that bothered him the most.  
If his mind was capable of it, the words he would have used to  
describe Ranma since Jusenkyo would have been 'more mature' and 'more  
skilled.' And now... He had brought Ranma to the Tendo to get away  
from everything that happened in China... He had expected some  
resistance... instead, Ranma was jumping for joy.  
Soun responded in the same dream-induced voice, "Yes,  
Saotome-san?"  
"Let's play a game of Go, while we wait," Genma replied.  
Akane watched the two fathers walk out with a bit of nervousness.  
She was left with Nabiki, who was giving her dark, anger looks for no  
reason she could think of, and Ranma, who she didn't know and was  
looking at her funny.  
Nabiki 'solved' Akane's problem by grabbing Ranma's hand and  
proceed to drag him towards the stairs.  
In a confused voice, Akane asked Nabiki, "Oneesan, where are you  
taking Saotome-san?"  
'Away from you,' flashed through Nabiki's mind as she walked up  
the stairs, but out loud she said, "I'm taking Ranma to my room."  
Akane noted the great familiarity Nabiki was taking with the  
strange boy, who was also a girl. Greatly confused and increasingly  
puzzled, Akane asked, "Why?"  
"I'll explained it to you when you're *older*, *Imooto*-chan,"  
was Nabiki's reply with a wink to Ranma.  
Akane just stood there as she heard Nabiki's door open, then  
close. She shrugged her shoulders and went to go see if Kasumi needed  
any help.  
  
"You do realize that Akane-chan going to think that we're...."  
Ranma started then paused as he noticed that Nabiki had locked her  
door behind them. He gulped nervously.  
Nabiki seductively walked over to Ranma, giggled, and replied in  
a soft, sexy voice, "And that would be bad, *my* *iinazuke*, because?"  
"But," Ranma began.  
Nabiki looked at Ranma, sighed, and screamed in a low voice,  
"Unbelievable! *She* put *you* through *TEN* years of *HELL*! She  
*abused* you. And your fourteen year marriage was nothing but a  
*joke* to her... Akane spent all *her* time on acting..."  
Ranma just signed and said, "Maybe... Okay, maybe, I agree with  
you..."  
Nabiki opened her mouth, but Ranma put his index finger over her  
lips, and continue, "Regardless, we may or may not be in an deviated  
timeline or the actually Past. *If* we *change* things --"  
"The World comes to end?" Nabiki replied sarcastically. "That's  
*how* we got *here* in the *first* place..."  
Ranma sighed again and said, "It's chaos theory... Secondary,  
even third degree effects can, and do, have non-linear relationships  
to their causes. By changing small things, will cause big changes  
now or further down the road.... And *you*'ve already made a *huge*  
change..."  
Close to tears, Nabiki said, "After *everything*..."  
"It can be our *only* advantage," Ranma said quietly.  
"But," Nabiki said as a tear sled down her face. "*We*'ve been  
*given* a *second chance*! A *chance* to *correct* our *mistakes*!"  
"*Our* mistakes?" Ranma asked curiously. "I know what *I* did  
wrong..." Ranma trailed off.  
In a soft voice Nabiki replied, "My biggest *mistake* was letting  
you *go*, Ranma-kun..." So saying Nabiki walked up to Ranma and kissed  
him throughly.  
The kiss lasted until Kasumi walked into the room, since Nabiki  
didn't response to her knock, and said, "Oh my!"  
Ranma immediately moved away from Nabiki, blushed, and tried to  
think up an excuse to explain away what they were doing.  
Nabiki sighed and in a frustrated voice asked her sister, "What do  
you want? I'm *busy*..."  
Kasumi blinked and said, "I wanted to tell Ranma-san that the  
guest room is ready for him and his father..."  
"Thanks, Kasumi," Ranma said. Including both sisters, he replied,  
"Good night..."  
After Ranma left, Kasumi asked Nabiki, "Aren't you two moving a  
*little* too fast? You've *just* met..."  
"How can I explain it, Oneechan," Nabiki asked softly. "I *love*  
him... It's like *I* known *him* for fifty years or so... I've seen  
him at his best... And at his worse..."  
Visions of a demonic Akane beating Ranma, who takes the blows in  
order to calm Akane down, Akane throwing a naked Kodachi at him, and  
Cologne's dead body lying at his feet as fifty Amazons bow down  
submissively to a very embarrassed Ranma, flash through Nabiki's mind.  
She shook her head to clear such thoughts from her mind.  
In the pause, Kasumi noticed the love in her sister's eyes. It's  
something she hasn't seen in her sister's eyes since their mother  
death.  
In a hesitate voice, Nabiki asked, "Kasumi? If you were *given*  
the *chance* to *set right* your past *wrongs*, would you? No matter  
the cost?"  
"To correct one's mistakes?" Kasumi asked curiously. "Yes, you  
should fix your mistakes...."  
Nabiki smiled at her sister.  
"What *mistakes* have you made, Imooto-chan?" Kasumi asked  
worried. "You're *not* pregnant, are you?"  
Nabiki's face faults. "No. I'm not pregnant..."  
"But...." Kasumi was confused. What was going on...  
"Oneechan?" Nabiki stated to get Kasumi's attention.  
"Yes?" Kasumi replied.  
"I know I haven't said it too often, okay, never since Mother  
died," Nabiki began. "But, *I* do *love* you, Oneechan. I *love* Daddy  
too... Even if he's such a coward..."  
"And?" Kasumi prompted with a smile.  
Nabiki sighed and said, "And... and I *love* my Imooto *too*...  
Even if she's a psychopathic tomboy, who'll kill everyone who loves  
her..."  
"Nabiki, that's isn't a very nice thing to say," Kasumi  
admonished. Upon reflection, she added, "Even if, part of that, is  
true..."  
  
Next morning, Akane walked down to the dining room to discover  
her father was reading the paper, Mister Saotome had a very surprised  
look on his face and kept mumbling something over and over again in  
shock, and Kasumi was clearing off two set of dishes from the table  
approximately where Nabiki usually sat.  
Since she was puzzled, Akane asked, "Where's Nabiki, Oneechan?  
And where's... ah hmmm... that boy... uh hmmm... Ranma-san?"  
Kasumi looked up, motioned for Akane to sit down, and replied,  
"Oh, they went to school..."  
After countless repetition, one could understand Genma's mumbling  
as "he went to school without a fight."  
After Akane sat down, Kasumi handed her her breakfast, which she  
ate quickly, she got up, and as she headed for the door she said, "Off  
to school..."  
As the gate of Furinkan High came in sight, Akane picked up speed  
and shouted her battle cry of "I hate boys!"  
When she got the courtyard of the school, she stopped and stared.  
The entire student body was frozen in place and their eyes were widen  
in surprise. A few of the boys and some of the girls' faces were  
twitching. One of Akane's friends, Yuka, walked mechanically over to  
her and said, "*He* kissed her. He *kissed* her. He kissed *her*."  
"Who kissed whom?" Akane asked puzzled and more important  
wondering why she should care.  
In a conspiratorial voice Yuka replied, "That *new* guy, the  
*hunk*, Ranma, *kissed* Nabiki. He kissed *her*. They walked in  
*holding* hands. Kuno-sempai, who was waiting on you, made some remark  
about her being an 'ice queen' -- only interested in money -- So Ranma  
*challenged* Kuno-sempai.... He out-Kuno-ed Kuno.... And then...  
then... then he *kissed* Nabiki... like.... Wow... I *wished* I could  
be kissed by a *hunk* like *that*..."  
Yuka's voice trailed off as the hearts in her eyes got bigger.  
The bell rang and slowly, but surely, everyone walked into their  
homerooms too shocked to do much else... Thus the tradition of  
fighting Akane for date died... not with a bang, but a thud.  
It quickly circulated that Ranma was engaged to Nabiki, both were  
in love, and both frowned on the various sports clubs that had been  
fighting her for a date. To be truthful, the various sports clubs had  
wanted to quit, but were afraid of Kuno-sempai. But that ended when  
Ranma beat him, and Nabiki announced that she would be lenient to  
collect from those that left Akane alone.  
The rest of the day, Akane kept overhearing everyone speculate  
about the mysterious guy, who in one day swept Nabiki off her feet...  
  
[=== End of Part 1 ===] 


End file.
